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The chrysalis is dark reddish, rather blacker above; enclosed in a silken cocoon spun up among leaves, etc., on the ground.
The moth emerges in June, and seems partial to marshy ground. It is found in the district between Dover and Deal commonly, and in other parts of Kent more rarely. Also in Hampshire, Devon, Dorset, South Wales, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Berkshire (water meadows by the Kennet), and Hertfordshire (rare). Some years ago I found a few specimens in the Brandon district, but it is not plentiful in Suffolk, and is rare in or absent from Norfolk. It is found in Cambridgeshire, chiefly in Wicken fen.
Note.—Although Callimorpha is here left in its old position among Arctiidæ, the genus has been referred by Hampson to Hypsidæ, a family of moths belonging to the African, Oriental, and Australian regions. Our two species are the sole representatives of the family in Europe.
The Feathered Footman (Coscinia striata).
Altogether there do not appear to have been more than six or seven specimens of this species (Plate [90]) recorded as British. Stephens mentions three of these, two males taken in the autumn of 1815, near Windsor; and one specimen, without date, in the Isle of Anglesea. Of the others one appears to have been taken in Yorkshire (1832), one in Essex, and another in North Wales (1859). Barrett also refers to a specimen, which was captured but afterwards escaped, near Bettws-y-Coed, North Wales, June, 1859, and gives some circumstantial details of the event. It appears, therefore, that of the very limited number of British striata North Wales has furnished almost half. The species is widely distributed in Europe, except the most northern part; the range extending into Asia Minor, Syria, Armenia, and Amurland. Abroad, it occurs on heaths, and in warm dry places. The caterpillar is blackish-brown,
marked with orange on the back, and white on the sides; the warts are yellowish, and the hairs arising therefrom are reddish brown; the head is black. It feeds in spring, after hibernation, on grasses, heather, and low herbage, and becomes full grown in May.
The Speckled Footman (Coscinia cribrum).
The fore wings are whitish, crossed by three rows of blackish grey dots, more or less connected, forming lines; and two streaks of the same colour through the length of the wings, but not always extending to the outer margin; a cross series of wedge-shaped marks or dots on the outer area; hind wings grey. Sometimes the fore wings are wholly suffused with the darker colour, and between such specimens and less frequent examples in which the wings are almost devoid of marking, there are many gradations (Plate [90], Figs. 1 ♂, 2 ♀; 4, 5, 6 vars.).